**7.3. MICA in different species after treatment with Flame Retardants**

66 New Approaches to the Study of Marine Mammals

other studies [15, 43].

treatments (C).

**MDC12 (long-beaked common** 

the basal activity. After the treatment with these doses, it therefore remains difficult to understand the response of MICA which we must expected from a toxicological stress. Probably the choice of the two compounds, known to have such capabilities in relation to

From Table 8 it appears evident that the carrier of OC mixture (DMSO) confounds the evaluation of the responses of the cells to the treatments, as previously demonstrated in

> *0.01 µg/ml*

**dolphin)** 100 104 98 29 / / **MOO12 (killer whale)** 100 31 25 26 47 22 **PMAS1 (sperm whale)** 100 137 94 291 2523 11195 **RT23 (striped dolphin)** 100 53 N.C. 59 54 N.C. **RT25 (fin whale)** 100 119 96 100 120 69

**MBE3 (Bryde's whale)** 100 100 174 62 / /

**Table 8.** Mean values of immunofluorescence of MICA revealed in cultured fibroblasts of different species treated with OC mixture. The immunofluorescence is expressed in index numbers respect to

**Figure 8.** A-C: Immunofluorescence (AUF/nucleus) of MICA in fibroblast cells of sperm whale (PMAS1).DAPI and Alexa Fluor 594 (Intensity 200ms) images of DMSO and the five OC mixture treatments (A); Nonane and three flame retardant treatments (B) and Acetone and three PAH

solvent control. Different colour of box is related to different increase of this protein.

*0.1*

*µg/ml <sup>1</sup> µg/ml 5 µg/ml 25 µg/ml* 

the immune system but not specifically in respect to MICA, should be reassessed.

*0.05%* 

**7.2. MICA in different species after treatment with OC mixture** 

*MICA DMSO* 

In the Table 9 are reported the results of the mean levels of immunofluorescence of MICA, revealed in cultured fibroblasts of different species treated with the flame retardants, expressed as index numbers.


**Table 9.** Mean values of immunofluorescence of MICA revealed in cultured fibroblasts of different species treated with flame retardants. The immunofluorescence is expressed in index numbers respect to solvent control. Different colour of box is related to different increase of this protein.

In striped dolphin (RT23) and fin whale (RT25) the highest response of MICA was related to flame retardants, with a bell-shaped response in both species. Discontinuous induction response is shown by sperm whale (PMAS1) (Figure 8B) and long-beaked common dolphin (MDC12), while Bryde's whale (MBE3) and killer whale (MOO12) showed no induction response.
